If you always wanted to make your own movies or share your home videos with others, Windows Movie Maker can help you get the job done.

Windows Movie Maker is a free video editing software package that works with most computers that use a Windows operating system. Though it comes standard on some versions of Windows, you can also download the program separately to use it on your new or old computer. It lets you create completely customized videos that you can burn and share on a DVD.

This is one of the only pieces of software that gives users the freedom to design and create the layout for the finished disc. With other programs, you can only create a basic video or movie and burn it to a disc. When you put that disc in a player, it will automatically play with video. Windows Movie Maker actually lets you create an opening menu that includes its own short video clip. You can also add several videos to that disc and create an opening menu that lets watchers select the video they want to watch.

Though it does work with many formats, it does not support all formats. You'll also notice that it now limits the size of the videos you can work with and use. This is a step that Microsoft took to cut down on copyright infringement and to keep users from illegally ripping or changing major films.

Windows Movie Maker comes with plenty of tools that you can use for making your own shorter or longer films. Drag different clips into your timeline to put all clips into one video, change the lighting in the background of certain videos and adjust the noise level to make the clips flow together better.

Its hardware acceleration feature now lets you edit your work even faster. This feature increases the speed at which the program encodes the videos that you choose and the speed at which it exports those videos too. This significantly cuts down on the amount of time it takes to save your work and to burn the finished product to a disc.

The program also makes it easy to add sound to your videos. With the program up and running, you can actually look for music from several free and paid music sites. Once you select the music you want, Windows Movie Maker will automatically change the format of that clip and show you a visual timeline that lets you see exactly where the song goes in your video. You can change when the music starts, when it ends and even how loudly it plays. For basic video editing and creation, few programs can beat Windows Movie Maker.

Pros:

Affordable option for Windows users

Allows for customized DVD layouts and other features

Works with many music sites to add music to videos

Encodes and exports files quickly

Lets users share finished videos via popular social networking sites

Cons:

Doesn't support all video and audio file formats

Still takes some time to burn a copy

Basic enough that advanced editors will want something with more features